Egypt: Israel must halt building in East Jerusalem before talks – Haaretz – Israel News

A State Department spokesman said on Friday that the Obama administration will be flexible on pre-conditions for all parties involved in Middle East peace negotiations.

“We put forward our ideas, publicly and privately, about what it will take for negotiations to be restarted, but ultimately it’ll be up to the parties themselves, with our help, to determine whether that threshold has been met,” spokesman P.J. Crowley said, adding that the U.S. position on an Israeli settlement freeze remains unchanged.

“Ultimately,” he added, “this is not a process by which the United States will impose conditions on Israel, on the Palestinian Authority, on other countries.

“We’re asking them to meet their commitments under the Roadmap, but most importantly, we’re asking them what they’re prepared to do and to demonstrate the steps that that they are prepared to take that allow us to have confidence that these negotiations can be restarted,” he said.

The White House said Thursday it had nothing to add to Crowley’s comments.